


Keep it steady

by MilkyStarr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Hunk (Voltron), Astronomy, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), College, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Emo Keith (Voltron), Engineer Lance, F/F, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith (Voltron), Human Allura (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hunk is 18, Idiots in Love, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Keith/Lance - Freeform, Klance Week 2016, Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance is 18, Lesbian Allura (Voltron), M/M, Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Minor Matt Holt/Shiro, POV Lance (Voltron), Pidge is 17, Pining Keith (Voltron), Polynesian Hunk (Voltron), Roommates, Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess, Shiro is 23, Slow Burn, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), allura is 19, broke college kids, computer science major pidge, damn bruh you live like this @ lance, hipster lance, hunk is an engineer also, idk - Freeform, its ok, keith goes to a local community college, keith is 19, lance/keith - Freeform, matt is 20, more tags to come, pidge is a lesbian, pidge skipped 2 grades, super slow slow burn, there is a lot of development before they become official
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-01-20 00:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12421221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilkyStarr/pseuds/MilkyStarr
Summary: Lance is a Barista working part time at a local cafe. This combined with his desire to impress his parents and get good grades, is driving him closer and closer to an edge he can't afford to fall off of. Especially when he has yet to reap the rewards of his hard work.Keith is a local community college student. Keith has already gone far over the edge Lance is nearly falling over and even with help from his brother he is struggling to recover.Neither of them know their place in the world yet and are looking for a reason to hold on.When the two meet and slowly become closer they are quick to realize what they want isn't lining up with what others want from them and find solace in they low expectations they have for each other.  An unlikely pair of friends emerge and somehow along with it the answers to their long unknown questions arise.(Lance's POV)Updates: As often as school allows





	1. Chapter 1: Meeting

Lance was pretty used to working long shifts, 5 hours with no breaks wasn’t a problem, he was happy to make the money. What lance was not fine with was getting asked to do an 8 hour shift the day before a huge test. “Allura please explain to me again why I’m being asked to do this?” He whines, handing a piping hot cup of coffee over the counter to a customer. He had been working here for over 2 years now. It was a pretty ideal situation, he was the owner’s best friend, and his best friends/roommates also worked there. He hadn’t planned to work at a cafe during college but it payed the bills.

“Because, like I told you, I’m going to a meeting with the local business board, Coran is still in England, Hunk has an Afternoon class in addition to a late night lab, which you should know, and we all know Pidge sure as hell isn't getting left here alone after what happened last time.” Lance hangs his head and groans. Not only remembering the incident but hating his friends for being busy.

“Eight hours though?” He gives her an exaggerated frown.

“If you work 9 I’ll give you a $50 bonus.” Allura says casually.

“Are you serious!” he yells knowing that it isn't very much.

“Well, your holiday bonus is going to be slightly less than last year, plus if you work more hours I’m legally supposed to pay you overtime, but I can’t afford that, so…” Lance's bright blue eyes lit up,

“Money is money, the only thing that holiday bonus went to was alcohol and helping my sister get a plane ticket home. Neither of which are things I have to pay for anymore.”

“Perfect. It’s settled. You and Pidge will both work 8-4 tomorrow.” Lance rushed over to her and gave her a side hug.

“$50 makes all the difference. Thanks Al.” He says calling her by her obscure nickname with a wide smile. She squeezes him back, giving him a smile back before quickly re-tying her apron and turning around to talk to a customer at the counter. The extra $50 bucks automatically boosted Lance’s mood for the rest of the day, not that anyone passing through the Coffee shop would notice, due to his normally cheerful attitude. He didn't really like that about other people, they always assumed he was a goofy, smiley, slacker. He was quite the opposite, he just liked to stay positive.

“Excuse me.” Lance's thoughts were suddenly interrupted.

“Oh.” he says turning to a boy about his age with a mullet. Yikes. “Yes how can I help you?”

“One large black coffee with a shot of espresso, please?” he asks. The boy looked nervous and mildly annoyed.

“Sure thing. Name please?” Lance says smiling at the boy who looked at him with a blank stare. "Name please." Lance says again. “What?” the other boy responds turning red. “Your name please?” Lance chuckles.

“Sorry, it’s Keith.” Keith rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. At least he wasn't the type of customer to get made at you for a mistake they made. That's the worst. Although, they eye rolling was a bit much. He would forgive Keith, he had a nice face. Besides Keith did't seem annoyed at Lance, he seemed more annoyed with himself. As Lance makes his coffee he is sure to make it with extra care. Filling the cup and adding a shot of espresso slower than he normally would, so that he wouldn't spill it. As he turns around he grabs a lid and moves back toward the counter.

“That's gonna be 3.50.” he says winking. Keith blushes and fumbles while handing him a five dollar bill, only making things even more awkward. Lance hands him the coffee and takes the bill out of the other boys hand. As he opens the cash register he notices Keith's face becoming a tomato red. He must be bad at social interaction and to desperate for coffee to avoid socialization. As a fellow college attending young adult Lance could relate.

“Y-You can keep the change.” Keith stutters before quickly turning and speed walking away. Lance just stares smiling, yet turning slightly red himself.

"Have a nice day." He calls back hoping the other boy hears.

“Oh my god.” A feminine voice behind him says. Lance whips around to find his roommate and coworker making fun of him.

“What!” he says defensively crossing his arms and turning even more red.

“You are such a dork, what did you say to him, that poor boy looked like he was going to have stroke.”

“I didn't say anything. He was just nervous!”

“ I think he has a crush on you.” Pidge says tauntingly. Lance couldn’t deny the encounter had been a little awkward but nothing happened to imply Keith liked him.

“Shut up and do your job you nosy gremlin.” Lance says turning red again.

“Whatever dummy,” Pidge responds. The girl sticks her tongue out before returning to the other end of the counter and taking a customers order. Lance starts to organize the back counter for a while, not really thinking about what had just happened, knowing he had no place in his life toght now for a relationship. He had school and a job. He had a GPA to maintain and a thousand on campus responsibilities. It would never work. Not that he liked Keith much. He preferred more outgoing types. Suddenly he stops organizing for a moment and allows himself to look at the clock. His shift was almost over and he had class in less than a half hour. Shit. Lance quickly took off his apron and grabbed Pidge's shoulder,

“I’ll see you tonight Pidge. Tell Allura I'm off to my afternoon class.” he says before walking into a small room in the back.

“See you Butt-face.” Pidge calls back to him as he leaves. Lance smiles and tosses his apron into a basket before reaching out to put his card into the time machine on the wall. It was super old, and he swore it deducted money from his pay somehow. Every time he brought it up Allura denied it and would often say something about how at least he got payed at all. As if people don't get paid for work and he was lucky to be making.$7.25 per hour. Walking further into the room he turns toward the corner and to a shelf neatly labeled with all of the employees names. He reaches into his and grabbs his large navy blue coat and “hipster bag” as Pidge likes to call it. It was nothing more than a brown leather satchel, but according to Pidge everything Lance does and owns is hipster. Walking out the door Lance pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks his bike from the side of the dumpster, careful to not breath any of the “toxic” fumes. The cafe shared a dumpster with a Japanese/ Eastern European fusion restaurant next door and that often created some perplexing smells. All of the employees quickly learned to hold their breath when going out behind the building. After mounting his bike Lance takes his phone out of his pocket and quickly looks at the time. He was going to need to hurry. Pushing off with his feet, he begins to ride towards the local college. He attended a private university called Altea College. It was well known for its engineering and aerospace programs, many astronauts had gone their prior to going to space. It had been his dream college since middle school. He had planned all of his high school classes around going there. Astronomy, AP physics, AP chemistry, Calculus A/B and B/C, and even a computer programming class. but when he was a senior and began to apply he found out the cost and nearly went to a local community college instead. He had no money, his parents sure as hell had no money, and financial aid wasn’t even close to enough. He was devastated, his two best friends had got in and were going and now he was going to have to stay behind. Needless to say Allura, whom he had just met at the time, was not having it. Knowing the Dean of Admissions personally she was able to coax the school into giving Lance a generous Scholarship. 60% of his tuition was covered each year as long as he maintained a 3.8 gpa and was never caught breaking the rules. It was a fair deal. In addition to that he was one of the few freshmen allowed to get a job and housing off campus. Since the town the university was in was so small the rent was cheap and having roommates made it even cheaper. His two roommates, his best friends from high school, Pidge a sophomore, and Hunk who was also a freshman, were the only other students under 20 allowed to live off campus. Everything had worked out so well and Lance was more than happy to do whatever he needed to keep what he had. He worked hard to keep everything balanced and he needed to make his parents proud. It had always been his goal to impress them. Being a middle child meant he had to work extra hard to do so. In the midst of his thoughts he soon arrived on campus and almost seconds later arrived at his class building.Stopping his bike he pulled his phone of his pocket; feeling a vibration he noticed he had he got a text from Hunk.

“ _Where are you? :((( I want to go over our lab notes one more time_.” Lance smiled and sent him a text back: “ _Fret not my love, I am here. <3_” He quickly locks up his bike and runs into class, silently praying that he brought his notebook with him this morning, knowing hunk would kill him if he didn’t


	2. Night in.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Food? Food. Also a protective Pidge, not so fun jabs at Lances love life, and making fun of white people! What isn't to love about this chapter.

As soon as their class dismissed them Lance and Hunk shoot out the door both wanting to be as far away from the class as possible. Bio lab was easily their least favorite class. 

“Can we not pick up Chinese tonight?” Hunk asks, unlocking his bike and looking up at Lance.

“What. Why?” Lance asks slightly panicked. The Thursday’s after class were always designated for Chinese food.

“I really want tacos, and if I’m being completely honest having chinese once a week, not matter how delicious, has lost its appeal.” Hunk looked sort of uncomfortable, it was obvious he didn’t want to hurt Lances feelings.

“Sure thing,” He wraps his arm around the larger boy, “I mean, I only have a few bucks on me but we can stop somewhere if you want…” Hunks anxiety waivers a little and he reaches his arm around Lance.

“How about you make some?” Lance gives a large exaggerated gasp

“Hunk that's racist.” Lance says knowing Hunk meant no offence when he said that. Lance was Cuban, which although was Latin American, was not the same as being Mexican or Puerto Rican, and had entirely different traditional food. Which to many people's dismay, did  _ NOT _ include the “mexican” version of tacos.

“No dummy,” Hunk says, “When I said I want Taco’s I meant I want  _ Tacos _ .” Hunk raises his thick dark eyebrows and grins at Lance. Lance gasps again, his bright blue eyes lighting upwith excitement . Lance loved tacos. Technically they weren't cuban but for some reason his mom taught him to make them anyway. It was a latino thing he guessed.

“Do you think Pidge could handle that much Cilantro.... I mean, She might actually die.” Hunk laughs a little. 

“Don’t make fun of her, it's not her fault she was raised on Tuna casserole and Spaghetti.” Lance mouth drops and he starts to laugh.

“Hunk you just murdered her in cold blood.” Hunk tries to keep a straight face.“I love quinoa!” Lance says horribly trying to mimic Pidges voice. The two boys burst out laughing.”

“Oh. my. God.”  Hunk says as tears stream out of his eyes.

“Don’t tell her I did that!” Lance says trying to suppress his laughter, “She will murder me!” Hunk pats his friend on the back. 

“Your secret hatred of white culture is safe with me Lance.” Hunk tilts his head and gives Lance a wink. Lance and Hunk were no stranger to race jokes, having both tan skin and darker brown hair. The had definitely heard a few and told a few.  Because of this, the two had agreed to limit the jokes, knowing how hurtful they could be. Sometimes though they really couldn’t help it. Pidge had been raised in such an Idyllic white paradise it was impossible not to make jokes about her. Her blonde hair and pasty white skin made it even harder, Pidge herself often made jokes about her whiteness.

“Ok-ok let's go to the store I don’t want to be out late.” Lance and Hunk both finis unlocking their bikes, before hopping on. Before taking off for the store Lance pulls out his phone and sends a text to Pidge:

“ _ Chinese is a no go. Hunk want’s tacos. Txt me if you want something from the store.” _

“ _ Tell Hunk that I hate him. But also I love and support him unconditionally.  And please get me something to eat other than ur soapy cilantro shit.”  _ Lance smiled at his friend's response before closing his phone and putting it in his pocket.

On the way to the store Lance began to think about the boy at the cafe. He hadn’t been the first person that he had had a strange encounter with. But something was different, he had seemed so spacey when Lance was talking to him and he had turned so red. Lance wondered if he had been high. The boy didn’t look familiar, but he seemed like Lances age. He must have gone to a community college in the area. Definitely the type to smoke pot. He was also wearing a flannel and ripped black jeans. Totally the type.Pidge mentioned that he may have found Lance attractive, but the other boy wasn’t acting flirty or bashful. He was definitely high. That was a first. He would have to tell Allura about that.

~...this is your regularly scheduled time skip because I have no clue how to write a grocery store scene without making it incredibly boring sorry, the story already is lackluster but you aren't here to hear me lament about my sub-par writing skills, so continuing on...~

As soon as Lance and Hunk arrived at their apartment Pidge descended on them with an intense and fiery fury. The store had been a longer trip than intended, both of their phones had died and with addition to the mexican food section both of the boys were to preoccupied to think of the time.

“Where have you dummies been!” She yelled opening up the door as they approached, multiple grocery bags in hand.

“Sorry, we got a bit distracted, they changed the layout and we got a little lost.” Lance says extending a bag out to her to take inside. She grabs the bag violently, and they all enter their apartment.

“Yeah  I’m sorry Pidge both of our phones ended up dying. And they added a larger Mexican food selection...” Hunk says apologetically smiling as both him and lance try not to drop anything while taking off their shoes.

“You guys are making my hair grey I swear” she mumbles shaking her head and then throwing the grocery bag onto the counter. “How was Bio lab?” she asks jumping up on a stool to watch the boys unpack her glasses sat at the very tip of her nose, nearly making lanc reach out and shove them back into place.

“It was fine.” Lance replies, “I didn’t really pay attention though,”

“Why? Busy thinking about the love of your life?” Pidge asks.

“Who-” Hunk starts, holding a can of beans in his hands.

“Lance found the love of his life today at work.” Pidge looks him in the eye gives lance a shit-eating grin.

“Pidge, I swear to god he was just on drugs or something and Allura had just given me a bonus so I was a little weird it was just an awkward situation.” Lance was not about to have this conversation, he wanted some food a movie and to go to bed. 

“His name is Keith,” Pidge continues Ignoring lance, “He is super emo looking and was super into Lance.”

“Wait really!” Hunk says excitedly forgetting about the groceries. Lance sighs.

“Look,” Pidge and Hunk both calm down and look at him, “I flirted a little but, that's what I always do, I think I lead him on a bit and I feel bad. If I see him again I’ll set things straight. For now can we unpack these groceries and eat?” Lance felt very tired, and thankfully both Pidge and Hunk respected that. He didn’t like talking about crushes or relationships very much. His last girlfriend from high school hadn’t been the best. She was manipulative and a cheater. She would take his money, steal his stuff and make up excuses to guilt trip him when he didn’t give her money. Hunk and Pidge had been the ones to force him out of the relationship. Which, at the time he hated them for, but now was thankful for more than almost anything. It had been intense when they broke up, lots of fighting and crying involved, Lance hadn’t been the same for weeks after, he still wasn’t. She still sometimes called him or even had her boyfriend call him to threaten him.

“Pidge, we forgot to get cilantro, your tacos are safe.” Hunk says, quickly moving on the conversation, obviously not wanting to upset Lance any further.

“Really?” Pidge asks excitedly, setting aside the tortillas.

“I was supposed to get it on the way out before we left but I forgot.” Lance says with a shrug.”The tacos will still taste good, just not as good.”

“Shhh. Lance they will be fine.” Hunk gathers all of the bags off the counter before taking a seat next to Pidge. The kitchen was nice for a small apartment. It had a marble island counter with a stove in the middle where the trio liked to sit and eat together. It also had a ton of cabinets and drawer space, which due to their broke-ness had been left mostly empty except a few pans and random silverware. 

“Show us how it's done Master Lance.” Pidge says and the three of them laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry if the characters are OOC I'm trying to make them fit the story better and Hunk and Lance seem nothing like they do in the show. I nee to work on being more descriptive. I did my best to be accurate in representing Cuban!Lance but, because I am not Cuban I'm sure I got something wrong. I am sorry if I did. I did a lot of research to make sure I wasn't being offensive or inaccurate. Please leave a comment if there is something I need to fix. (this is also why I have avoided Bilingual!Lance. I do speak more than one language but neither of them are Spanish. So I am scared to try and write that.) Anyway, in the next chapter our beloved Keith returns along with some friends. Make sure to leave Kudos if you enjoyed!  
> -MilkyStarr


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Britney bitch. LOL. I randomly gained motivation to write another chapter, which is cool. It's been over a year since I last posted a chapter and I have been telling myself to write the next one but I never do.... anyway... This chapter might be a little different from the others simply because it has been so long.   
> Enjoy!

Waking up the next morning to the lingering smell of oil and cooked meat Lance internally kicks himself for making tacos without opening the windows. The house was going to reek for weeks. 

“HEY FART FACE!” Pidge called into his room from the hallway.

“What!” he calls back. Pidge peeks her head through the door, she was already fully dressed and had a backpack in her hand.

“You might want to get up now or you’re going to be extremely late for work.”  _ oh fuck.  _ Lance jumps up from his bed and looks over to his alarm clock. 7:27. He quickly picked a pair of jeans from the floor and started to put them on. He threw on a black t-shirt, a mandatory part of his uniform, and them ran out of his room. Pidge was now sitting at the kitchen counter slowly eating some cereal when he ran in. “Watch it speed demon.” She mumbled as he snatched the cereal box from in front of her, accidentally hitting her arm in the process.

“Sorry!” he shouted before tossing a hand full of cereal into his mouth and taking a gulp of milk straight from the carton. He was normally a mannerless heathen when he ate, but this morning he was a savage animal, ignoring Pidge’s obviously disgusted looks. After swallowing a second gulp of milk he ran back towards his room and into the bathroom grabbing the first stick of deodorant he saw, knowing full well that it was Hunk’s expensive  extra strength kind that he was definitely going to get chewed out for using. He then began vigorously brushing his teeth, almost totally ignoring his appearance in the mirror before running out and noticing that his hair was a mess. “Ahg!” he yelled throwing down his toothbrush and furiously running his hands through his hair only slightly taming its wild appearance.

“Lance we need to go!’ Pidge called from the other side of the apartment. Lance quickly grabbed his bag from his room and followed her out the door. 

The bike ride to work went quicker than usual, all of the adrenaline pumping through him made him bike faster and he arrived to work slightly earlier than he had expected. Locking their bikes together next to the dumpster, Lance and Pidge took their time putting on their aprons and clocking in. The entire cafe smelled of coffee already, Allura had been up early to roast some beans and prepare for the day ahead. She was dedicated to her business, something Lance appreciated, particularly because it meant he didn’t have to wake up super early to do her job. 

“How are you doing this morning Lance?” Allura slyly asks him when he finally starts to set up the front counter.

“Pidge, I am going to kill you.” He groans to the smaller girl next to him. Pidge and Allura both laugh. 

‘I’m sorry Lance,” she says, “Allura deserves to know how seriously her employees take their jobs.”

“I was on time though!” he yells, looking towards Allura for conformation and support. She nods.

“Lance is right, he was on time, although I would have appreciated you both coming in earlier because Coran wasn’t able to help this morning like he usually does.” Lance watches as Pidge’s grin disappears.

“Oopsie…” Lance says quietly.

“Shut up Lance…” Pidge mumbles and Allura lets out a gentle laugh before taking her long silvery hair out of the bun it was in.

“It’s alright, you both are here now, and I can leave and get ready for my meeting.” She unties her apron and pats them both on the back. “Be good today, please don’t burn the place to the ground, and please be nice to the customers.” Her eyes slide in Pidges direction and the three of them all smile. 

“Don’t worry ‘Lura we have everything under control.” Lance says reassuring her.

“Yeah, this should be a piece of cake. Lance and I are the duo of the century.” Pidge agrees.

Allura raises an eyebrow and sighs. 

“If I hear any complaints I am kicking both of your asses when I get back.” She hangs her apron and walks out the door, not looking back to notice both Pidge and Lance side-eyeing one another.

Approximately 3 hours later both Pidge and Lance ate their words, with a line out the door, an espresso machine down, and the both of them on edge they were in full panic mode.

“Lance, stop putting the cream next to the coffee maker it makes it warm and them melts the iced coffee!” Pidge growls in anger. Lance ignores her while he takes a credit card from a customer who had just ordered 6 iced lattes all with different flavors, making Lance question his moral stance on murder. 

“Here I’ll hop on those lattes, you take the next order.” He says his voice strained as he turns around to take over her place.

“Not now, I still have to finish this order, I’ll hand it off to you when I’m done.” she says and Lance turns back around to address the next customer in line.

“Hi what can I get for you?” he asks putting on an obviously fake and strained smile.

“Can I uh-get a Medium black coffee. Please.” It was Keith.  _ Shit. _ Lance was not at all prepared to somehow explain to this guy that he was not into him.

“Sure thing,” Lance smiles wider against his better judgment, “Your name is Keith right?”

“Yeah…” Keith gives a lite smile back and pulls out a five dollar bill.

“Alright Keith that’s going to be three dollars.” He quickly takes the bill and hands Keith his change. “I’ll have the right out for you, you can go stand over their and I’ll call your name when it’s ready.” Keith nods and walks away.

“Here lemme take over,” Pidge nudges Lances shoulder, “The lattes are done, you just need to hand them off.”

“Cool.” Lance grabs them off the counter and hands them off before pouring Keith’s coffee.

“I’ve got a Medium Black coffee for Keith!” he shouts over the noise of the cafe, noticing that somehow Keith had disappeared and was no longer at the counter. “Keith!” he shouts again before, the other boys recognizable mess of black hair appears in the crowd and moves towards Lance. “Here you are.” Lance says starting to hand it off before getting hit in the back by Pidge and throwing it at Keith in surprise. Time stops and he gasps loudly. “Oh-my-gosh-I-am-so-sorry!” Lance yells in one breath. Keith stands silently in shock, dripping in boiling hot coffee.

“Ouch.” he says suddenly, shaking the coffee off his arms. The entire cafe is silent, watching. 

“I am so sorry! Are you ok?!” Lance shouts running around the counter with paper towel. 

“I’m fine, I’m just a little shocked that’s all” Keith responds, taking the paper towel from Lances hand and drying himself off. He doesn’t look or sound mad or hurt, but Lance can’t help but feeling awful. 

“Here come to the back and let me help you.” Not noticing what he’s doing Lance grabs Keiths arm and brings him into the back room, leaving Pidge temporarily stranded.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Chapter in which Lance is oblivious, Keith is called out, and Pidge knows too much about the inner workings of other peoples minds.

Keith almost immediately yanked his arm away from Lance’s hand. “Dude, I said I was fine.” Lance looks up a little to meet the other boys eyes and raises his eyebrows. 

“Whatever man, that shit was well over boiling when I spilled it on you, that shit definitely hurt, not to mention you are completely covered in it.” Lance indicated to Keith’s, now coffee stained, clothes. Keith rolled his eyes and sighed before grabbed more paper towel from Lances hand, dabbing his clothes, barely making any difference in how damp he was. 

“You know, we have some t-shirts back here somewhere if you want, it might not make that big of a difference, but then again there is nothing worse than a wet shirt.” Lance rambles on as he suddenly begins to root through various boxes and cabinets. “They might not be the most flattering,” he continues, “But they should get the job done.” Keith stands in silence watching Lance with an amused look on his face. “Ah-HA!” Lance exclaims and holds up a handful of shirts triumphantly. “What size are you?” he asks, pulling each of them apart and looking at the various tags.

“Uhm… Medium…” Keith says quietly, his ears and cheeks now a light pink.

“Cool, here you go.” Lance tosses Keith a shirt before absent-mindedly throwing the rest into a random box. 

“Thanks I guess…” Keith starts to say before Lance interrupts him.

“You can use the staff bathroom to change, its right through that door right there, I have to go back out, Pidge can’t be trusted to handle things on her own.” Lance gives  him a sincere smile and Keith blankly stares back obviously not knowing what to say.”Don’t worry, I’ll get you another coffee on your way out.” Lance assures the boy with a pat on the shoulder and then immediately walks out the door and back into the Cafe. He takes a deep breath and puts a fake smile on his face. Keith hated him, and was doing a piss poor job of hiding it. Lance’s clumsiness had single handedly squashed a one-sided crush. It wasn’t as if he cared if Keith hated him or not, he was just a random dude that had hit on him and in return he had spilled boiling coffee over him. Nothing strange or worth over-thinking about. Lance takes another deep breath. He was doomed. His mind raced as he began to help Pidge. Things had slowed down significantly in the cafe and there were only a few people left in line. But the counter was a mess and there were at least five people who had yet to receive their orders.

“As it turns out I can handle things better alone then when I’m working with you,” Pidge laughs trying to make light of her terrible situation, “Who would have thought.” Her eyes were wide and there was a fresh burn on her arm, Lance let out a small laugh.

“Too bad.” he said. He felt bad for leaving her, even if it had been for only a few minutes, Pidge was small, and often easily overwhelmed. Once the customers were gone he would help her dress the burn and allow her to chastise him for being slow while doing it.  Lance let out another final sigh before turning to the register and servicing another customer.

Keith walked out a few moments later supporting a light blue Cafe Altea shirt. It was slightly to big for him but it didn’t look odd, he almost looked like an employee. Pidge arched her eyebrows.

“I didn’t think Allura was hiring…” there was a teasing tone to her voice, but Keith turned bright red anyway. 

“She isn't.” Lance said giving a lopsided smile, “We had extra shirts in the back and I felt bad just letting him walk around soaking wet.” Keith nodded in agreement. “Plus we get free advertisement.” 

“Sorry for all of the trouble.” Keith said softly, he was holding his old shirt in one hand and the paper towel in another, he looked uncomfortable. Lance reaches over and  grabs the paper towel from his hand.

“It was all my fault. Don’t feel sorry.” he replies.

“Yeah don’t feel sorry, Lance is dumb and that was the only way he could think of to get you to hate him.” Pidge said filling up a cup with coffee as she spoke.

“What? Keith asked and nervously looked over to Lance before widening his eyes with fear and confusion. Lance put his face into his hand and sighed.

“Fuck you Pidge.” he mumbled before turning to address Keith.”Yesterday when you came in I thought you were hitting on me, she is just trying to make a sorry situation worse.” Keith turned bright red and pressed his lips together.

“I-uh wasn’t trying to hit on you…” Lance lights up at this.

“You obviously were, I am knowing for being a bit flirty with customers, you were just doing the same back, no harm no foul.” Lance says dismissing the situation in an attempt to end the conversation. Pidge hands Keith his coffee.

“Next time you are around stop by and Lance or I will get you a free cup of coffee.Have a nice day.” Pidge pats Keith’s back and guides him to the door.

“Bye now.” Lance says, turning his back to them and returning to making coffee, like he should have been doing the entire time.

When Pidge returns she grabs Lance’s sleeve aggressively. “Way to make him feel uncomfortable, dick head.”

“What are you talking about?!” Lance cries in return, facing her with his hands on his hips.

“When he denied hitting on you, you rejected that and told him you were impossible not to flirt with, you sounded like an absolute d-bag!” She shouts, causing some customers to turn their heads towards them. “He wasn’t hitting on you, he just liked you, that’s all. He wasn’t bad looking either and you chased him right away.” Lance gave her a bewildered look.

“I wasn’t at all interested, incase you can’t tell Pidge, I like women, a lot in fact. And I was just explaining to him that it was subconscious on both ends.” Pidge rolls her eyes.

“I saved both of you from further embarrassment. You don’t subconsciously flirt with someone unless you’re attracted to them.” She turns towards the register and starts talking to a customer, effectively ending their conversation and leaving Lance fuming to make the remaining orders.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Season 8 came out 2 days ago. I have watched all the episodes twice. I won't spoil anything but several things that happened are going to make this story diverge even more from the original story. RIP KLANCE. S8 has made me evaluate what I wan't to be writing, which is not this. I would like to continue writing voltron fanfic as long as there are people willing to read it. I have no interest in writing "fix-it-fic" but I would like to start writing more angsty stories, mostly langst and klangst. I would also like to write a story where Pidge and Shiro are the main characters (not shidge Istg) but I feel obligated to finish this story. Please leave a comment if you would like me continue this story, because if you don't I will post the plans I had for the story as the last chapter and start focusing on other projects. Anyway, this update is super short and for that I am sorry, I just finished exams and I had some problems planning my next semester so I have been busy and this has been sitting around waiting for me to publish it. As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter!  
> -MilkyStarr


End file.
